feature: SOL Makes His Mark

Sol Moravia-Rosenberg started rapping when he was in the fifth grade. Back then, it was just him fooling around with his cousins.

By age 12, he was already in the studio, improving at such a rapid pace that an album was never an option. For the UW sophomore, now known as SOL, this was the beginning of a process he refers to often: artist development.

“Before I knew it, I was a rapper,” he said. “I would listen to my brother’s CDs and my cousin’s CDs, and I would learn all the words and come up with my own lyrics. I would be rapping on top of “Ruff Ryders’ Anthem” with the same delivery DMX has. And before I knew it, I was writing songs.”

When SOL and his cousin parted ways at age 15, he began his solo career; this is when he exploded as a musician, taking drum lessons and regularly practicing singing and rapping. It still wasn’t time for an album — according to Rosenberg, puberty made him “sound like a chipmunk” — but that only drove him to work harder.

“It takes a lot more to be a good hip-hop artist than one might think,” he said. “It’s not just talking over the beat — a bad rapper can talk over a beat and rhyme. There’s a lot of music involved in making good music.”

From an early age, Rosenberg paid for booth time at Seattle recording studio Undercaste. He would be assigned homework every week, sent home to write songs and develop ideas. It was a slow process, but it taught him to get things right the first time. And he had heart; instead of settling, music was always about improvement. Everything he’s done so far led up to his debut album.

“I was a student to the game and the culture of hip-hop. I grew up within the culture because I was always listening to hip-hop, but this was the business side; I was a sponge, and I feel lucky that I was dropped into that situation.”

Recorded at Undercaste, most of his February-released debut LP The Ride was co-produced by Captain Midnite and Isaac Meek, but SOL makes it clear that he was the executive producer. There’s no question that the album is his from top to bottom, taking the listener on a journey of sounds and ideas.

The album is, as Rosenberg describes it, just like Seattle: two-thirds dark and rainy, one-third sunny and beautiful. On The Ride, SOL talks about socioeconomics, race, class and poverty. He doesn’t explicitly draw his family into the rhymes, but his parents give him global context; though they met at the UW, his mother was born and raised in Haiti, while his father's family emigrated from Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution.

“Instead of creating a character on the microphone, what I really did was find out more about myself and bring this realness that I have as being multi-ethnic and immersed in the hip-hop culture for so long,” he said. “I have no problem just being me.”

Influenced by Eldridge Cleaver’s prison essay compilation “Soul on Ice,” “Heart of Ice” stands as one of the album’s most complex and moving tracks. In it, SOL fiercely denounces prejudice via the persona of Bigger Thomas, antihero of Richard Wright's classic "Native Son." Even “Spliff,” as a stoner groove with an infectious beat and catchy Notorious B.I.G. sample, displays SOL’s schooling in hip-hop history.

“The writing in my music is something I take really seriously,” Sol said. “I’m not dealing with hunger or starvation, I’m not dealing with daily violence, but these are realities that people I know and people that I care about and people in general deal with. It’s my responsibility, almost as a sociologist, and as a storyteller, to talk about these things.”

The past month has been big for SOL: he’s done a radio appearance on KEXP’s Streetsounds, picked up play from local stations including hip-hop giant KUBE, while finishing second overall in the EMP Sound Off! competition. That win earned him recording gear, studio time and, best of all, a slot at Seattle’s Northwest Folklife Festival.

“I’m excited about taking second place as a solo artist, but Sound Off! isn’t the pinnacle of my career. I’m trying to put myself in a position where 2009 is going to be a really good year for me,” he said with a laugh. “I plan on making my mark."